JHPIEGO has
been awarded a three-year $24 million cooperative agreement
by the United States Agency for International Development
to implement the AIDS, Population and Health Integrated
Assistance Program, known as APHIA II, in Eastern Province,
Kenya.
Given that the full impact of Kenya's HIV epidemic has
yet to be felt in Eastern Province, where HIV prevalence
rates are lower than in most other provinces, JHPIEGO and
its partners have an opportunity to head off and mitigate a
potential crisis.
According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey
conducted in 2003, 6.1 percent of women and 1.5 percent of
men in Eastern Kenya are living with HIV. Yet, with
contraceptive prevalence relatively high, new opportunities
to link reproductive health/family planning visits and care
to HIV services are anticipated.
JHPIEGO will lead efforts in providing high-quality
HIV/AIDS services that will increase the number of people
receiving antiretroviral treatment and the prevention of
mother-to-child transmission of HIV services, as well as a
wide range of palliative care services. The program will
integrate and improve reproductive health and family
planning, tuberculosis and selected maternal and child
health services at both the facility and community
levels.
"By putting HIV at the center of a stronger
comprehensive care network that includes reproductive
health and family planning services, Kenyans in the Eastern
Province [will be afforded] every opportunity to access
testing, counseling, care and treatment for themselves and
others," said Pamela Lynam, JHPIEGO's regional technical
director for East and Southern Africa, who is based in
Nairobi, Kenya. "This APHIA II program has the ability to
demonstrate how one Kenyan region can prevent the kinds of
dramatic increases in HIV prevalence rates that have been
seen in other parts of the country."
Project activities will include developing human
capacity and the corresponding systems; expanding services
to people living with HIV and AIDS, as well as to orphans
and vulnerable children; strengthening community structures
and networks to implement behavior change, gender awareness
and community mobilization; and linking facility- and
community-based services for delivery points of
comprehensive care.
To address the weak health infrastructure and delivery
of services in the Eastern Province, JHPIEGO has assembled
a team of experienced partners that includes the African
Medical and Research Foundation, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric
AIDS Foundation, Family Health International, Program for
Appropriate Technology in Health, and Liverpool VC and Care
Kenya.